Twitter Makes Tweaks to Punish ‘Troll-Like Behavior’

In an effort to rein in abuse, Twitter will consider a range of information when it demotes some tweets

Twitter Inc. is turning to greater automation in its battle against abuse on its platform, saying its software will start automatically demoting response posts that it determines are likely to disrupt users’ conversations.

The change, which will roll out over the coming week, isn’t designed to deal with accounts or messages that violate Twitter’s content policies, which the company says it already acts against. Rather, the new approach targets accounts that Twitter says exhibit signs of “troll-like behavior” and that “distort...